Season 1 – Ep 5
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[Karen]
In episode 4, Fan Xian heard the lay of the land in the Capital from his father, Fan Jian. That night, he must turn back to matters with Teng Zi Jing, the assassin from the 4th division of the overwatch council that was instructed to kill Fan xian. Teng Zi Jing snuck into the Fan Manor where Fan Xian shares that Teng Zi Jing’s only existing record available is an arrest warrant.
Given this information, Teng Zi Jing kneels in front of Fan Xian and requests that he procures a page from his record in the overwatch council. If he does, Teng Zi Jing is willing to be Fan Xian’s servant/slave. Fan Xian flat out refuses which angers Teng Zi Jing but the reason why Fan Xian refuses is because he has another condition for helping Teng Zi Jing. Fan Xian just wants to know why Teng Zi Jing was originally arrested and brought into the Overwatch Council.
Notice how Fan Xian kneels in front of Teng Zi Jing during this exchange because he sees Teng Zi Jing as his equal, not as a servant.
[Cathy]
Teng Zi Jing explains that he was originally arrested because he beat up a bunch of people who were bullying an old couple. The people he beat up worked for Guo Bao Kun, son of Guo You Zhi, the minister of rites. A day later, he receive an arrest warrant which states that he tried to assassinate a court official. Oddly, the couple he saved turned around to declare that he did indeed try to assassinate a court official. This led to a guilty verdict where he and his entire family are sentenced to death. Teng Zi Jing was only saved by the overwatch council who brought him in to do its bidding.
After returning to the capital, Teng Zi Jing finds that his family is now missing. As a “dead” person, he can’t investigate and therefore turns to Fan Xian for help. Fan Xian agrees not because Teng Zi Jing agreed to be his slave, but because Teng Zi Jing is a good person.
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[Karen]
The next day the 3 Fan family children, Fan Xian, Fan Si Zhe and Fan Ruo Ruo, head out to lunch where Fan Si Zhe said he’s buying. This originally was Fan Si Zhe’s plan to knock Fan Xian down a notch as he ordered his men to beat fan xian up on the way. But, Teng Zi Jing easily beat those men up instead. Fan Si Zhe has no option but to play nice.
In front of the restaurant, Fan XIan and company are secretly asked if they want to buy a banned book, Hong Lou, or Dream of the Red Chamber. That’s odd. How did this become a book to sell and for such an astronomical price? Turns out, the man selling the banned book is none other than Wang Qi Nian. Wang Qi Nian distracts Fan Xian and runs off before Fan Xian can say much more about this rather intriguing man.
[Cathy]
When Fan Xian returns to the restaurant, Fan Si Zhe’s eyes basically turn into dollar signs. He sees just how many people are buying this book and hearing that Fan Xian is the one to write it, or at least he’s the only person who knows the rest of the story, he immediately wants to become business partners with Fan Xian in order to make money. He goes through rather impressive math on exactly how much profit they could make if they work together to sell this book. So impressive that after this little monologue, everyone is more or less slack jawed at how quickly Fan Si Zhe can do math. His key skill is now unlocked.
Before the group can posit any further, a commotion happens down on the street. Guo Bao Kun, son of the minister of rites and person who caused Teng Zi Jing’s verdict, steps out on to the street after ordering copies of Hong Lou be taken away. In the streets, he announces that these books are inappropriate and should be banned.
This angers Fan Si Zhe greatly, much to the surprise of Fan Xian, who goes down onto the street to shout at Guo Bao Kun. Guo Bao Kun and another young man He Zong Wei start verbally bullying Fan Si Zhe who tries to fight back with his fists but is stopped by Guo Bao Kun’s staff. Fortunately, before Fan Si Zhe can get seriously injured, Fan Xian steps in to protect Fan Si Zhe.
[Karen]
Out on the street, Fan Xian confronts Guo Bao Kun and company. Clearly, Guo Bao Kun is here to see Fan Xian since he knew exactly who Fan Xian was on Fan Xian’s second day in the capital. Fan Xian first punches the servant who pushed Fan Si Zhe and then turns to verbally attack Guo Bao Kun and He Zong Wei. He highlights that they haven’t even read the book but says it’s inappropriate solely based on the fact that the book is not written by someone well known. In this entire exchange, Fan Si Zhe is clapping his support of his brother, almost as his biggest fan girl. It’s quite hilariou to watch.
Before the spat can escalate any further, another person enters the fray. This time it is the son of the Prince of Jing, Li Hong Cheng. His father is the Emperor’s younger brother which maks Li Hong Cheng royalty. He diffuses the situation by inviting everyone to a poetry meeting tomorrow to share their own skills.
[Cathy]
Fan Xian agrees to come to this meeting and the group departs. On the carriage ride home, Fan Xian very quickly deduces that Guo Bao Kun, Li Hong Cheng and them were all waiting for Fan Xian specifically. Guo Bao Kun on behalf of the Crown Prince and Li Hong Cheng…well we find out he’s in league with the 2nd prince Li Cheng Ze.
At a cross street, Fan Xian sneaks off of t he carriage to head over to the Overwatch Council to help Teng Zi JIng.
Before we wrap up, we have neglected to mention the other group out on the streets right now. Lin Wan’Er and her close friend Ye Ling’Er. Lin Wan’Er is clearly smitten with the young man she met at the temple the day prior but is upset that she is ordered to marry Fan Xian. For her, may be sickly but she is very stubborn. If she is to marry someone, it has to be someone she likes. Ye Ling’Er takes Wan’Er out to try to meet Fan Xian and order him to eliminate the betrothal. The episode ends with Ling’Er and Wan’Er’s carriage crossing paths with Fan Ruo Ruo’s carriage.
[Karen]
Let’s move on to pop culture and history!
First, I want to talk about Fan Si Zhe’s actor Guo Qi Lin. He is the son of famed xiang sheng actor 郭德纲。 For those of you unfamiliar with xiang sheng, I see it is also translated to cross talk or comic dialog. It is akin to standup comedy in a way but is a traditional performing art in China. Normally in a xiang sheng performance, there are 2 people on stage that go back and forth in their bit. Sometimes there’s one person, other times there are more folks on stage.
Why I bring this up is because Fan Si Zhe’s actor Guo Qi Lin is also a xiang sheng actor and member of the famed 德云社 De Yun She, a famous xiang sheng organization created by Guo Qi Lin’s father Guo De Gang. When Guo Qi Lin isn’t acting, he spends his time either on variety tv shows or else actually on stage as a Xiang Sheng actor.
When we hear Fan Si Zhe’s little monologue in episode 5 where he is spewing off numbers on how much profit he can make, that is using his skills as a xiang sheng actor.
A little fun behind the scenes knowledge – for the scene where Guo Qi Lin apparently started memorizing the lines from day 1 of filming. This was one of the last scenes he filmed for this drama and he’s doing the entire thing in single takes. At the end, he finally shouts that YES I don’t have to memorize this anymore! Haha.
[Cathy]
When Fan Xian and his siblings are headed to the restaurant, a female peddler with a child mutters to them whether or not they want to buy a banned book. Fan Xian responds – oh, this sounds very familiar! Do you also 卖盘 mai pan? Mai Pan means to sell disks. In the early 2000s, selling pirated VCDs and DVDs were all the rage within China. This includes regular Chinese dramas but also non-Chinese dramas. Hollywood movies and Japanese movies were also quite popular. These pirated DVDs were common in essentially every street corner but you had to know where to look. It was a coordinated effort, hence Fan Xian’s reaction to the woman saying that this whole operation was familiar. As a reminder, the book was published back in the late 2000s so streaming wasn’t prevalent.
Please note that 买盘 and 卖盘 now means buying and selling shares of stock. 卖盘 means sell order. Well, it’s always also meant that but as people no longer buy physical DVDs, when someone discusses 卖盘, it’s mainly to references stocks
[Karen]
Next, when Fan Xian discovers the mastermind behind the ring of pirated books is none other than 王启年, he claims – who knew you were a 妇女之友? This a fun new term which directly translates to friend of married women, but it mainly means that this guys has a lot of friends of the opposite sex. This has a neutral to positive connotation but can veer towards a negative connotation if the man uses this friendliness with women to his advantage.
In the same conversation, Fan Xian makes a jab at Wang Qi Nian for creating a 文化产业 or Culture Industry. This was originally coined by two germans Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) and Max Horkheimer in the book Dialectic of Enlightenment which was published in 1947. The Chinese culture industry began in earnest in only in 1998 to focus on popular culture such as mass media and the arts. The culture industry is commonly referenced as an economic output in China. I mean – look at the pandas in Chengdu. There’s so much media and merchandise surrounding those pandas that they literally drove the Chengdu economy over the past 2 years.
[Cathy]
Now we get to the main confrontation between Fan Xian and Guo You Zhi who makes his first appearance. Fan Xian makes a mocks Guo You Zhi and He Zong Wei stating that they are not worthy of the scholar name. Fan Xian then states 非学无以广才，非志无以成学.
This roughly translates to If you don’t study, then you can’t improve your abilities. if you don’t have ambition then you won’t achieve success.
This phrase originates from 诫子书 or the Book of Commandments written by the famed Three Kingdoms politician, strategist, poet, and inventor Zhu Ge Liang. There was literally nothing he couldn’t do. Zhu Ge Liang wrote Jie Zi Shu to his son on his deathbed as on self-cultivation, conduct, and way of life. The text itself is rather short but has been passed down through history as a learning text for future generations to study hard and set goals.
[Karen]
Last but not least, let’s talk about the phrase 泡文学女青年!
泡 is a relatively new term. It literally translates to bathe or to soak. You typically say – 泡澡 or take a bath, or 泡茶 or brew tea. 泡 now also means to pick up women. It typically is paired with 妞 or a young woman, so you would say oh he’s off to 泡妞.
文艺女青年 translates to an artistic young woman. She most likely has some family money to be able to focus on the arts. This phrase developed or became popular starting in the 1980s and 1990s as more people accumulated wealth.
Bring the whole phrase together of 泡文艺女青年 – it’s quite uh – flirtatious. We hear the phrase 泡妞 quite a bit but not picking up an artistic young woman. The funny thing is, it really does capture the whole point of these poetry / literary meetings. It’s for the young men and women to meet and essentially pair up!
[Cathy]
Our last quick topic for today are book differences!
In the book, when Fan Xian takes a look at the pirated copy of Dream of the Red Mansion, he notices that there are some phrases that are taken out of context and printed in the book, which make it seem more salacious than it actually is. That gives more weight to why the scholar class views it as an obscene book that deserves to be banned. We don’t get that really in the drama.
The encounter with Guo You Zhi and He Zong Wei happen all within the restaurant so it’s much more enclosed. Fan Si Zhe also doesn’t have his whole shining moment about calculating profit. It’s made rather clear that He Zong Wei has a crush on Fan Ruo Ruo – take a look at the character in the drama. He immediately changes his posture when he sees her. His change in demeanor is much more explicit in the books.